I've been playing around with my first batch of pedals, and so far I'm pretty satisfied, Well, half satisfied. The DD-3's lack of modulation is not great, so I may look into something else (with modulation and tap tempo), but the real point of this thread is the BOSS CS-3. I originally wanted the T Rex Comp Nova, but AMS doesn't stock it and I needed to take advantage of their 3 Easy Payment Plan (bless their hearts).

All other options of quality were very expensive, so I went with BOSS, thinking it must be okay for the subtle way in which I'll use it. I quickly found out why people call it a tone sucker. It really does take away from the meat of your guitar. Also, the effect is incredibly obvious when it kicks in. When set high, notes are so squashed it's a joke and set to add just a touch of oomph to the tone really doesn’t do much at all. The pedal is also rather hissy.

I was getting ready to return it when I googled BOSS CS-3 mods. Lots of info came up. The two prominent ones were for Monte Allums and Fromel Electronics:

http://www.monteallums.com/pedal_mods.html#cs3opto
(scroll down to get to the CS-3)

http://www.fromelelectronics.com/modifications/Pedals-Boss-CS-3-Compressor


Listening to the audio samples and reading the descriptions has me leaning towards the Monte Allums mods. There are two; the Opto and the Opto Plus. The Plus supposedly adds more mids and warmth. It's tough to hear the difference, and the regular Opto is his best selling mod. Not sure which I'd get.

Does anyone know of these or any other mods for the CS-3? There's no question that these mods do make this $89 box sound far, far better, so I'm definitely going to use one of these (or any other that you might recommend.

Alas, I don’t have the skills to perform the installation myself, so I'll ship the pedal to them for the operation.

While looking over the mods, if you're a tech head, please let me know what you think of the parts used and please see if you can translate some of the techno speak into child's english for me. :o Thanks!

Looking forward to hearing what you all think.

Nobody, huh? Huh. Well... in my continuing research I stumbled upon this:

Pigtronix Philosopher's Tone
http://proguitarshop.com/store/effects-compressor-pedals-pigtronix-compressor-sustainer-c-602_87_97/pigtronix-philosopher-s-tone-germanium-gold-ltd-p-1831

All I can say is WOW. What an amazing pedal. I'm starting to think that the cost difference between having the BOSS pedal modified and getting Pigtronix is acceptable.

Yo Dude

I just bought a compressor this week(EHX White Finger). After spending about 3-4 hours over the last two evenings I've finally cracked it and found a sound I can work with. I've been doing a lot of finger picking of late so I bought this pedal to get a smoother sound. It's also massively improved the tone of anything that involves strumming.

My advice would be to spend some more time twiddling knobs before you mod it. When I started with mine last night I was just about ready to return it after half an hour. I got some settings of the internet but they were also no good for me. You've just got to keep twiddling till you find the sound that's right for you. The thing with compression is that it's such a subtle effect(unless your using extreme settings) the majority of the time the only person who's going to know you're using it is yourself. I never listen to a gutarist and think "Wow! Great compression!"

I was compressor shopping just a few weeks ago. I was hunting the Boss CS-2 (ala Paul Pigat) and finally gave up. Thought about the CS-3 and doing the Monte Mods but, when researching it seemed that the old standby MXR Dyna Comp was pretty popular. I ended up getting the Custom Comp, it seems to be a custom shop version of the same pedal with the "right chip", true bypass and pots inside to tweak the sound better. I like it.

I was compressor shopping just a few weeks ago. I was hunting the Boss CS-2 (ala Paul Pigat) and finally gave up. Thought about the CS-3 and doing the Monte Mods but, when researching it seemed that the old standby MXR Dyna Comp was pretty popular. I ended up getting the Custom Comp, it seems to be a custom shop version of the same pedal with the "right chip", true bypass and pots inside to tweak the sound better. I like it.

MXR DC.That's what the studio pros have used for years.There's better compressors but not 'til you get to a rack unit or ultra high dollar pedal(300.00). The Best, "TROLL"

I've been playing around with my first batch of pedals, and so far I'm pretty satisfied, Well, half satisfied. The DD-3's lack of modulation is not great, so I may look into something else (with modulation and tap tempo), but the real point of this thread is the BOSS CS-3. I originally wanted the T Rex Comp Nova, but AMS doesn't stock it and I needed to take advantage of their 3 Easy Payment Plan (bless their hearts).

All other options of quality were very expensive, so I went with BOSS, thinking it must be okay for the subtle way in which I'll use it. I quickly found out why people call it a tone sucker. It really does take away from the meat of your guitar. Also, the effect is incredibly obvious when it kicks in. When set high, notes are so squashed it's a joke and set to add just a touch of oomph to the tone really doesn’t do much at all. The pedal is also rather hissy.

I was getting ready to return it when I googled BOSS CS-3 mods. Lots of info came up. The two prominent ones were for Monte Allums and Fromel Electronics:

http://www.monteallums.com/pedal_mods.html#cs3opto
(scroll down to get to the CS-3)

http://www.fromelelectronics.com/modifications/Pedals-Boss-CS-3-Compressor


Listening to the audio samples and reading the descriptions has me leaning towards the Monte Allums mods. There are two; the Opto and the Opto Plus. The Plus supposedly adds more mids and warmth. It's tough to hear the difference, and the regular Opto is his best selling mod. Not sure which I'd get.

Does anyone know of these or any other mods for the CS-3? There's no question that these mods do make this $89 box sound far, far better, so I'm definitely going to use one of these (or any other that you might recommend.

Alas, I don’t have the skills to perform the installation myself, so I'll ship the pedal to them for the operation.

While looking over the mods, if you're a tech head, please let me know what you think of the parts used and please see if you can translate some of the techno speak into child's english for me. :o Thanks!

Looking forward to hearing what you all think.
Check the power supply that's supposed to be used with the CS-3.It's listed on the bottom of the pedal.I'm too lazy to go downstairs and look and something makes me think I didn't have right power supply for it(that would make it noisy).Yes,mines a turd.I use an MXR now.It's quiet and does what it's supposed to do. The Best, "TROLL"

I have a Dynacomp that was noisy and did little. I sent it to MXR and it came back 100% better. The comment on fiddling around with the dials is valid. Too much and you do lose tone. It should be nearly transparent, improving sustain while loosing the ice-pickey stuff.

anybody who actually can work good with a compressor , i having a cs 3 aswell and it sounds well a balanced sound ,but it sounds like some one its stamping on the brakes evertytime the cs 3 corrects the sound. especially the attack level is a question mark to me .

I never understood the need for a compressor pedal. They're called tone suckers because that's exactly what they're designed to do. A good chunk of what makes up playing a guitar is made up by the dynamics that's are involved, whether they're applied by the player (pick attack, strum pattern) or the nature differences in level based on the string/frequency. Why anyone would want a device that saws all of this off is beyond me. I know the argument is sustain but when is enough sustain enough? And at what cost? Are the guys outs there playing one sustained note every 30 seconds? The havoc the compressor reeks on tone seems like a clear cut case of the juice not being worth the squeeze (how's that for compressor anecdote?). Also I completely understand the place compression has in recording applications as a post production effect, maybe the in line versions had a use for this and modern recording techniques have rendered them obsolete? Seems like a case of being marketed into something to make pedal boards bigger (the ole Freudian pedal board envy).

anybody who actually can work good with a compressor , i having a cs 3 aswell and it sounds well a balanced sound ,but it sounds like some one its stamping on the brakes evertytime the cs 3 corrects the sound. especially the attack level is a question mark to me .

I'm sending my CS-3 off to get the Monte Allums mods this week. I can't wait to play with it when it returns.
There is a great comparison video on YouTube with the modded CS-3, T Rex Comp Nova, and the 4 and the 2 knob Keeley. This is what sold me.


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The modded CS-3 is very transparent and only enhances tone without seeming to detract from things much at all. For me, that's all I want a compressor to do. No one wants compliments on what a great compressor they use after a gig. A good one is one that you forget is there. It's doing it's work, however, and that's evening out some of the harmonics that get lost, and, in the case of a good model, can actually add a lot of clarity and definition to your playing.

I'm sending my CS-3 off to get the Monte Allums mods this week. I can't wait to play with it when it returns.
There is a great comparison video on YouTube with the modded CS-3, T Rex Comp Nova, and the 4 and the 2 knob Keeley. This is what sold me.



The modded CS-3 is very transparent and only enhances tone without seeming to detract from things much at all. For me, that's all I want a compressor to do. No one wants compliments on what a great compressor they use after a gig. A good one is one that you forget is there. It's doing it's work, however, and that's evening out some of the harmonics that get lost, and, in the case of a good model, can actually add a lot of clarity and definition to your playing.
I'll be curious as to the results. I had a CS-3 and sold it for the same behavior you mention, it was about as subtle and an elephant stampede. I have long held that compression is the main reason many players like to crank their amps up. An amp that's breaking a sweat is compressing the signal and sounds warm and smooth. I've always loved that sound that Stephen Stills achieves by using stacked limiters but I've had a hard time finding a stomp-box compressor that I really liked. I hope that the mods do the trick for you.

I'll be curious as to the results. I had a CS-3 and sold it for the same behavior you mention, it was about as subtle and an elephant stampede. I have long held that compression is the main reason many players like to crank their amps up. An amp that's breaking a sweat is compressing the signal and sounds warm and smooth. I've always loved that sound that Stephen Stills achieves by using stacked limiters but I've had a hard time finding a stomp-box compressor that I really liked. I hope that the mods do the trick for you.

Thanks, Synchro.
My pedal lands at the mod place today, so I'll probably have it back midweek. I'll be sure to give a thorough review. From listening to samples on Monte's site and talking to Merv, the only officially authorized US installer of all Allums' mods, I'm expecting it to be really be great. In other words, tone sweetening, NO noise, and almost totally transparent when you want and smooth as silk when you want push things.

The mods sound good on the boss. I listened on my sen headphones on the boss is best of the bunch if thats the sound you want. The others are simply awfull.
I never really understand why guitarists want that sound as they not only kill tone, they also reduce the dynamics of the instrument. A compressor reduces the top end volume therefore reducing any dynamic playing. What i find so damn good about my hollow body Gretsch is it is so much more responsive that my Les Paul, in as much that you can back right off and come in hard for solo's, accents, in between licks... Yes a compressor can fatten the tone, if used correctly, which means subtly, but those twangy snaps and bangs get lost, because when the instruments output reaches a certain decibel, which is set by the compressor (the level pot) the device pushes back on the peaks and squashing the sound, hence the name compressor.

Thanks, Synchro.
My pedal lands at the mod place today, so I'll probably have it back midweek. I'll be sure to give a thorough review. From listening to samples on Monte's site and talking to Merv, the only officially authorized US installer of all Allums' mods, I'm expecting it to be really be great. In other words, tone sweetening, NO noise, and almost totally transparent when you want and smooth as silk when you want push things.I'll be listening.

Monte Allums does great work. And for the record, a compressor does not have to suck tone if used properly. A lot of guys renowned for their tone use them.

I run a Deluxe Reverb on about 4. It is very useful to me.